Happy Easter folks. It looks like today has the makings of a perfect blue-sky day, but it is a little cloudy just now. At least it isn’t raining. This is a little Easter treat, although it was painted a while back, from Smak, whose work these days is not as frequent as it once was.
The SMAK letters in a kind of brown/brass colour are set on a background of pink and blue, and have a kind of ‘brushed metal’, look to them. A modest piece from one of the best graffiti writers in town.
I have an interesting and rather close relationship with squid. The reason this blog exists, and why it is called Natural Adventures, is that It was a way of digitising a journal I kept when I worked in the Falkland Islands in 1987, much of the time being spent on a Japanese squid fishing boat called the Koei Maru 30. You can read the journal here (up to where I have reached so far).
This is a wonderful squid piece painted by What Katy Made Next at the Bristol Mural Collective paint Jam at the start of March. It is a fine piece that captures the colours and vibrancy of the cephalopod set on an Earth-like background. The very first piece I painted in my garden was also a squid with the letters SCOOJ concealed (rather cleverly, I thought). It is high time I did some more spraying of my own.
An endearing bird monster thing painted by Mote on the hoarding behind Temple Meads Station. Mote is tireless and his imagination limitless, which is a good thing for those of us who like to find his work dotted around the City.
This rather forlorn creature is nicely composed, and the soft tones work well together. I am guessing that this might have been here a while because it proceeds his wobbly monsters, which started appearing in February this year. Another one for the collection.
This door at the far end of the skate park gets quite a lot of attention from artists and taggers, and is a candidate for the ‘One Wall‘ series of posts that I do. This time it hosts a lovely rabbit piece from Hire. These are not to be confused with other rabbits that were a common feature in Bristol, until the artist, Eldey (followmyrabbits) was jailed for rape and attempted rape in 2021. Hire’s rabbits were the original Bristol rabbits and have an element of edge to them.
A yellow rabbit on a green door is the stuff of children’s picture books, I had a particular favourite called ‘Go Dog Go’, which features coloured dogs and trees and so on… I digress. This is another fine rabbit from Hire in a long sequence going back to when I first started photographing graffiti and street art in Bristol.
I love it when a new artist appears on my radar and I start to see their work all over the place. I think that Raid is a relative newcomer to Bristol, but he is already making an impact with his distinct and attractive writing.
The letters spell RAID, with the ‘A’ being rather distinct. The letter shapes seem to be retained from piece to piece, so it is the drop shadow and fills that change, and he has done a superb job with this one. The drop shadow is cleverly done with a black surround and grey middle, adding character and interest. The solid blue fill is decorated with colourful pixel patterns, creating a rather joyful overall feel. More to come from Raid soon.
We’re going back a long way with this piece, photographed at the top end of Stapleton Road in May 2018. I don’t know who the artist is, and I expect that is why I never posted it at the time.
It looks like it might have been by Dabuten Tronko, but I think the tag is from the piece to the left. The familiar theme of a skeleton using spray cans is often associated with Laic217, but this is certainly not one of his. I guess it will remain a mystery who the artist is, but it was too good to leave in my archive once I have revisited it recently.
This is another piece from the archive, and is an absolute classic from RAW’s Ryder. Ryder is at the very heart of everything that is great about graffiti writing in Bristol. His work is consistently brilliant, there is always an element of edge and the style of writing has a really strong local identity to it. If you look at graffiti writing from around the world there are clearly local styles and influences, and Ryder is central to the Bristol look.
Painted in April 2018, in red and gold, the letters RYDER stand out and smack you in the face. It is weird looking at the finished piece, but it feels like the creation was effortless, maybe because of his modesty and lack of fuss. Punchy and direct, this is a no nonsense statement from the wonderful Ryder.
Another root around in my archive unearthed this old one from February 2018, by Taboo, and if you look carefully to the left you can see the edge of a piece by Deamz. I still miss seeing Deamz’ work on our streets, even though he left for Tasmania several years ago – maybe one day he will return for a visit and decorate a wall or two.
I suspect that I have several more unpublished Taboo pieces lurking in my files, but this one stood out, most probably, because of the colour selections, with a transition from white to copper, with some interesting oranges and reds filling in the holes. This is a really nice piece of anti-style graffiti writing.
Posting abo
ut Claro_que_sssnoh, is always troublesome, because his name is difficult to type at the best of times, but when I am in a rush (which I usually am when writing my posts) it is extra difficult. Perhaps I should have paid better attention at the touch-typing classes my mother made me do in a classroom above a shop in Oxford Street, when I was in my early 20s.
Claro’s work (see what I did there?) is always good to see as it offers a unique take on graffiti writing. The letters HONS laid down in an almost continuous line of joined up writing with equal measure of long straight lines and curvy lines is a unique style here in Bristol, and makes his work easy to identify (most of the time. The dark blue background is a little unusual, but contrasts well with the ‘fruit salad’ colours of the writing. A lovely piece from Claro.
This is a big bold statement piece from Bogat alongside the M32 motorway, from a week or two back. This is a striking piece and I know that when I post it on Instagram it wil be popular, there is something about his work that is appealing.
The piece spells BOG in large and nicely finished letters with some cool drips going on at the top of the piece. The open-mouthed character making up the ‘O’ is typical of Bogat’s work. There is some nice shading on the face and hat offering texture to the face. I am enjoying Bogat’s work very much and look forward to seeing more.
Natural adventures 